Presumably it’s including the average incidence of corporate rates because some small fraction of earners in the middle quintile pay those rates as business owners.
I happen to agree with you about who’s “really” paying for employer FICA, but there are many other taxes not directly assessed on the middle class that they’re likely paying for anyway. You can’t just tack on the full rate; not everyone in the middle class is paying FICA on every dollar of their income, there are many middle-class retirees.
Yes, the government is much, much larger than it was 75 years ago, and some of the burden for paying that has fallen on the middle class.
But the fact remains: Every major tax reform package from Reagan to Bush II to Obama to Trump has either lowered middle class rates, increased middle class deductions, or made significant new credits available to the middle class. Usually more than one of these.
I happen to agree with you about who’s “really” paying for employer FICA, but there are many other taxes not directly assessed on the middle class that they’re likely paying for anyway. You can’t just tack on the full rate; not everyone in the middle class is paying FICA on every dollar of their income, there are many middle-class retirees.
Yes, the government is much, much larger than it was 75 years ago, and some of the burden for paying that has fallen on the middle class.
But the fact remains: Every major tax reform package from Reagan to Bush II to Obama to Trump has either lowered middle class rates, increased middle class deductions, or made significant new credits available to the middle class. Usually more than one of these.